An AFK PUG Solution

[Part of the Design Folder]

Roger once asked if in MMORPGs, you should have expectations of other players - especially when it comes to PUG (randomly grouping player) instances. In his example, the event in Star Trek Online required a minimal effort from everyone to cover all the objectives but since the rewards were based on repeated attendance and not actual participation this encourages a lot of people to just AFK / let the others do the work for them. This is a rampant problem that exists in pretty much every MMO.

Since it boils down to being a social problem, I think the easiest way to handle this is simply via vote system which already exists in many games. The only difference is that this one will only show up if you fail or don't complete all the objectives in a random queue, and it simply asks "in your opinion, which of your team mates performed the worst?". An option to select no one will always be present.

Then, these votes are simply tallied per character/account. Otherwise, if the average of their votes/fails exceeds a particular threshold, they earn some sort of "shit" badge. People with a "shit" badge will only be paired with other "shit" badge holders. There is a way to get rid of that hindrance though - every time they fail a instance/event in a random queue and are NOT voted worst by anyone, the vote count drops by one and eventually the average will sway them back into the good books. 

Note: This is only for failed random queues/instances. If your team wins or you group up with others intentionally (not a random grouping), nothing happens vote wise positive or negative.

That's my idea anyway. Let me know what you think!

Neverwinter Online: Goodbye Foundry

Life support: Off.

Cryptic has decided to pull the plug on the Foundry, which is a real shame since that was the one feature that got me playing it in the first place. It doesn't really come as a surprise though as the Foundry has pretty much been "dying" for years due to lack of official support.

This move also affects Cryptic's other MMO - Star Trek Online and much of what Contains Moderate Peril mentions on his post about this rings true for the NWO side as well, with players abusing the system and Cryptic not doing a good enough job to make the program more robust.

Players have until April 11 to enjoy player made foundry adventures for the last time before they are lost to the void. I'll be visiting my ones and DL's for sure, just for one last goodbye.

Neverwinter Online: Fire up your Foundries!

For those who play Neverwinter Online, you have just under two weeks to enter the Cult of the Dragon Foundry contest that Cryptic is holding to celebrate the new module coming out next month "The Tyranny of Dragons". The requirements aren't that severe and while winning is decided by the community (so, we probably won't win) you still get a green level companion just for participating!

Well, this might come in handy...

This might be the time to give the foundry a try if you haven't already, and if you require help or knowledge then feel free to ask and I will try help to the best of my ability.

Just a quick run down on the main requirements:
-one entry per Author, must be new quest (easy)
-include the Cult of the Dragon (easy, just plan for them to be included)
-adhere to Foundry EULA (easy, just stick to D&D, don't add people from Star Trek or Warcraft etc. and don't make it too "sexual")
-average duration of 15 minutes or more

That last one will be what makes or breaks your adventure as a contender. The only way to get that time balance right is to play test a lot, which means actually having something to test BEFORE you submit your finished work to the official thread. Doing too much of one thing for 15 minutes will also lower the enjoyability so you'll need to be smart!

As a slight bonus: Your mission will get plays, even if it is just from other contestants gauging the opposition. That is one of the hardest things when making a mission - advertising and spruiking it, so it's best to take advantage of the official spotlight while you get the chance as foundry contests do not come about very often!

Sacred: The Green Sea

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

There is a serious goblin infestation on the outskirts of town number two which is in between the town of losers and Porto Vallum. This makes my tasks of treasure hunting, finding missing people, and simply giving a man a drink quite a challenge. As usual they are easily dispatched in small numbers but these buggers are literally coming in waves of ten or more, with shamans warping in more reinforcements from the nearby goblin planet (I suppose) every 15 seconds.

They stole our technology, Captain!

It actually takes a bit of scouting before I find a suitable path through the unending green bastards to my destination of Porto Vallum - alas the two random guys who needed an escort there did not make it, being eviscerated by the goblins midway. Been awhile since I've seen a "Quest Failed" message which still lets you continue the game. Oh well, they have no problems now being dead and all so I was left to my own devices to explore this ... outpost really, which sat on the border of an orc infested desert. Great.

Fortunately the orc forces don't have a unit (like the goblin shamans) that can paralyze your movement, which meant I could gallop right past the massive crowds of them to fetch lost medicines, maps and the like and fight specific groups at locations of my choosing. This was way preferrable to the little terrors from the woods before. Anyway, my main objective here (after handing in the letter from the town of losers) was to find Prince Valor's man servant Wilbur who had been kidnapped by the orcs he was spying on. It took a little effort to find the correct orc camp but soon Wilbur was again a free man and had urgent news for the prince.

Star Trek Online: Where Everyone has Gone Before

Since I already have a Cryptic account I figured I'd give this, the predecessor to Neverwinter Online, a try.

Set zipper to stun!

After creating your character, which I think actually has more customizability than in NWO, you soon end up with your own "starter" spaceship which just like you and your officers (party / away team) can be upgraded with various gear and "injured" if you lose combat. Yep. Spaceships get injuries. Poor spaceship! Terminology aside, the overall feeling I got was that space, especially near planets, is messy! Given that each player is a captain of his or her own ship, you can see why this would be the case. This is not a bad thing though, as without all that clutter the universe would be a pretty lonely place.

The space travel and space combat are actually pretty well done, and are the highlights of my experience in the game. In the end you are still basically a boat, and trying to cross the "T" in combat for efficiency. That is, you want to broadside your full payload at enemy vessels who are either directly facing or running away from you. Sure there's shields (which you can adjust the facing of) and photon torpedoes and lasers, but switch that out for old fashioned cannons and it's the same principle. The little artefact mini game that you'll often encounter is also a nice enough diversion for a small amount of loot. I also really like the "random space" sector that doesn't seem to have main quests but instead randomized missions that pop up as you approach points of interest.

Ground wise movement and environments are quite nice too, but the combat is... clunky at best. You don't get the phasers with only 2 settings of stun and kill like on the show. Nope, this time they act like the same math driven weapons you find everywhere else and the formula of "If old weapon dmg < new weapon dmg = switch to new weapon" certainly applies. Once you have a full away team though you might not even have to worry about the ground fighting so much as they will basically handle everything for you (at least in the little I played they did). I actually tested this on a Gorn planet. Didn't fire a shot, yet my away team slaughtered all those lizard men with no problems. Some of the randomized missions though are... lacking in decor to say the least. I did one where basically all I did was run through an empty cave. Exciting stuff that.

Still I can see cool potential in this game, and if I wasn't stuck into Neverwinter Online (D&D is more my thing) then I'd probably give it a more expansive look. For now though I think I'll give it 3 tricorders out of 5. Not the best MMO out there for my tastes but certainly not one of the worst.

Redshirt: Facebook in Space

Some games people call Diablo clones while others are labelled WoW copy cats. In this regard Redshirt is a lot like Facebook. Yes, there's the comedy factor of being on a doomed space station performing ludicrous duties parodying Star Trek but all your actions will be spent on the station's social network: Spacebook.

The aim of the game is to manuever and manipulate your social circles by making friends, hosting and attending events and sending messages to keep people happy to put you into a favourable position of saving yourself while everyone else dies horribly. Sleeping your way to the top is one valid path, but given that your friends are often killed in away missions (and then replaced by people that dislike you) I simply opted to work hard and purchase an exit ticket which is probably the easiest solution to the game.

Hope you really like this screen, it's where most of the action takes place.

While the music is pretty cool, there are very few moving parts given that most of the time you will be staring at the pretty stale Spacebook screen. As a concept it works pretty well, and people who enjoy spending a bunch of time on facebook (especially trekkies) will probably get a kick out of this game. I clocked up 6 hours on it before victory myself, however I have no inclination of playing it again since it is not really that enticing. Not really something I would recommend unless you are a fan of the genre. Redshirt - I give it 1 and a half out of 5 mangled body parts from the transporter.

The Forge of Winter

Current Foundry Rank: Artifex (Level 6)
Current Scribes' Enclave Rank: Member-Scribe

Decided to post this little tracker to let people know how I'm going with my quests being constructed in the Neverwinter Online Foundry, along with any notes I've found while using it and mistakes I make. Hopefully it proves useful to some others.

All the below are stand-alone and solo friendly.

One Step to Darkness [NW-DNJC9SK7A]  (1 hr story focus)
Rebel Incursion [NW-DFHLFGNQY] (15-20 min combat focus)
Dirty Rats [NW-DGLB37WLW] (15-25 min combat focus)
Spiders of the Glade [NW-DUWK7BEE7] (15-25 min combat focus)
Arroway Manor [NW-DP3GLWRDP] (8-15 min stealth focus)
Coeden [NW-DM719BCQ5] (15-20 min combat focus)
A Measure of Character [NW-DKJKPQKH8] (15-45 min story focus)

Notes:

1. Given that people can still find/play individual quests out of order I'm not really fussed on releasing each one as they complete.
2. So far, it's taken awhile to even complete one quest mainly due to the (not so bad, but still there) learning curve.
3. Also spent sometime just writing in a notebook about how things will play out for the whole campaign.
4. CTRL+S will save you if the editor hangs when you are dragging an item to the playing area.
5. Don't duplicate maps after you put dialogue. Do it before.
6. Don't add things to a map after putting dialogue or you'll need to add it in copied maps manually (argh).
7. You can rig a timer by making guards fight monsters in a separate room.
8. The Foundry Forums are a good source of info.
9. People don't like running around. Tried to cut this down (Q1) but still ended up on the heavy side. I'm guessing especially the final part. Them tomb halls are huge. :P
10. Dungeon prefabs don't always gel well together and cause odd graphic issues. To combat this I've put walls to try hide those missing textures.
11. Knock backs can break a module if a monster falls to an unreachable zone and doesn't die. The players will then forever be in combat and cannot interact with stuff. With this in mind I paved over all the big holes I had (Q1) so it wouldn't happen.
12. Getting reviews and plays is actually the hardest part it seems. Hopefully I can count on my guildies to get my content through the review phase (must get 5 reviews and 20 plays).
13. Apparently it's common for new patch releases to break modules, according to Star Trek Online (another Cryptic game) foundry users. The only way to beat it is eternal vigilance. 
14. After raging a bit I decided to have another crack at this, modifying my planned quests to be even simpler to better cater for the audience and more importantly, to work around the weaknesses of the editor.
15. Having decided to switch to quick 15-20 minute quests I've realized it will be too cumbersome to try tell the story I had originally planned. Because of this I've scrapped my original campaign plan and have decided just to make a bunch of stand alone things that may or may not link together.
16. Just as a note as of Febuary 2014 my quest and campaign limit has been bumped up from 10 to 15. Not sure if that was a global thing.
17. Put up my current foundry rank. Totally aiming for level 10! Or.. 9... or 8... :P
18. Joined the Scribes' Enclave to see what they are all about. They are bloody amazing. I strongly others to join too. Non-authors will be able to find some really fantastic hidden works in here as well. Unfortunately the Enclave has closed due to lack of activity.
19. When posting for reviews on the Foundry Forums, always offer to trade. People are more likely to play your maps if they get some much needed plays and reviews themselves. 
20. Join competitions. Especially silly ones since it will up your skill in things like decor and costume design! :P